There is an official campsite at Santa Marija, in Comino. It forms a part of the Comino Natura 2000 zone, a former marshland and reed bed, scheduled as such because of its scientific and ecological importance. The Natura 2000 management plan calls for camping to be halted immediately. The site should be rehabilitated to allow for the habitat of salt-resistant trees by the beach to move into the campsite area and for a dune area at the back to be extended.
However, it seems semi-permanent tents and camping equipment are threatening to turn the area into a “shanty town”.
For several years, bona fide campers have had to contend with parts of the site being occupied throughout the summer months by large tents, often equipped with generators and outdoor seating areas. This practice appears to have been extended into the autumn with numerous vacant tents visible on the site complete with tables, chairs and other equipment seemingly left abandoned there, hence its apt description by Birdlife Malta of the site as a “shanty town”.
Friends of the Earth have added their concern. They highlighted the complaints made by Comino permanent residents themselves, who have reported that the campsite is growing in size and extending beyond its normal boundaries, with the structures placed there becoming larger, more intrusive and more permanent.
A Planning Authority permit is required to camp at Santa Marija but this, it is understood, is routinely ignored and, for some reason, enforcement officers do not police the site.
The level of lawlessness in this country is extraordinary. It is a uniquely Maltese feature. Everybody is aware of it, yet nobody in authority seems to have the will to do anything about it. From dangerous driving to illegal occupation of public land, to illegal hunting of protected species and illegal parking, there is little that escapes the opportunist confident that, given the lack of political will, the long arm of the law will not reach them.
Comino is an ecologically-protected island, a bird sanctuary and a nature reserve. In the judgement of Friends of the Earth, the campsite should be moved from its present location, which is ecologically important and vulnerable, and established elsewhere on the island at a site more suitable as a camping area.
The more immediate problem to be dealt with by the authorities, however, is to establish the identities of the people “residing” in the campsite and whether they have permission to be there. If, as seems likely, they do not hold a valid permit to be camping there, the illicit “shanty town” (which has clearly been abandoned by those owners too selfish to care about its impact on this sensitive site) should be removed immediately.
On previous experience, it seems highly unlikely that any single authority will take ownership and responsibility for this problem. The Planning Authority clearly has a responsibility to act. But then one should also expect the Environmental Resources Authority - which has overall policy responsibility for all Natura 2000 sites - to be making its voice heard. And should not the Minister for Gozo also be demanding action?
Whichever government authority steps forward, the public demands that both short- and long-term action be taken urgently to protect this unique area and to remove this scar from Comino.
This is a Times of Malta print editorial